AGENDA:
Read Ch. 1 and post a response to Q. 1
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/reviews/the-enchanted/excerpt
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18090147-the-enchanted
http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/9694-enchanted-denfeld
1. The novel opens with the line, "This is an enchanted place. Others don't
see it but I do." The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word
"enchant" as, "to attract and hold the attention of (someone) by being
interesting, pretty, etc.; to put a magic spell on (someone or
something)." Why does the narrator call this place enchanted? What
beauty does he find in his surroundings that others do not? What does
this tell us about the narrator?
2. Talk about the main
characters: the narrator, the lady, the priest, and York, the prisoner
on death row at the center of the story. How are these characters' lives
and their fates intrinsically connected? What do we learn about the
lady and the priest from the narrator?
3. Why does York want to
die and why does the lady want to save him? Is he worth saving? How does
she go about gathering evidence to understand his case, knowledge that
might prevent his execution? What propels her choice at the novel's end?
4.
Think about York. What were your first impressions about him when he's
introduced? As you discovered more about his story, did your outlook
towards him change? How does the experience of investigating York's past
affect the lady and her outlook towards York? How does it shape how she
sees her own life?
5. What draws the lady and the priest to one
another? Why do you think each chose the career they pursued? How do
their callings sustain them emotionally? Are they good at what they
do—even if the priest is himself fallen from grace?
6. What has
being locked inside done to the narrator—and for him? What about some of
the other prisoners he watches? Do you believe in rehabilitation? Do
you think our prison system today encourages rehabilitation? Is there
something else we can do besides imprison those who commit crimes?
7.
One of the Ten Commandments is "thou shalt not kill." Isn't executing
someone—even someone who committed a heinous crime such as taking
another's life—going against morality? Why is the death penalty still
used in the United States compared to most other modern democracies?
8.
Do you believe that we are products of our circumstances? How much can
free will mitigate terrible damage that inflicted in a person's youth,
when he or she is most vulnerable and impressionable? Why do people do
such terrible things to each other and to innocent children? "There is
too much pain in the world, that's the problem," the lady tells the
priest. What causes so much of the world's pain and can we, both
individually and as a society, do to help alleviate this suffering? How
much responsibility do we carry for our fellow men and women?
9.
What do you think is the worst punishment that the prisoners in the
novel face being locked away? "It is meaning that drives most people
forward into time and it is meaning that reminds them of the past, so
they know where they are in the universe. But what about men like me?
For us time doesn't exist." Think about time in your life and in the
narrator's. How do you respond to him? What can give a life that is not
measured by the events of time real meaning? How is such a life
measured? Think about not being able to touch someone or see the sky.
How would that affect you for a day? A week? A year? A lifetime?
10.
What happens to people when they are incarcerated? How can we make the
prison system more humane? Should it be humane or do convicts,
regardless of the level of their crimes, "deserve what they get"? As a
society, do we see prison more as punishment or as retribution? How can
we save people from having failed lives? Is it possible to save someone?
11. Do you think that death offers release for men like York and the narrator? Did they find peace?
12.
Like the lady, Rene Denfeld is a fact investigator in death penalty
cases. How do you think her work shaped the story? Did reading The Enchanted alter your view of prison?
13.
Rene Denfeld touches on many issues and themes: Mental illness,
justice, time, kindness, remorse, forgiveness, the need for love and
connection, life and death itself. Choose one or two and trace them
through the novel, using examples from the novel to enrich your
analysis.
14. Why did you choose to read this novel? Did the
novel surprise you in any way? Explain why or why not. What did you take
away from reading The Enchanted?
(Questions published by the publisher.)
Writers and Books Discussion Points
http://wab.org/rr-2017-the-enchanted-discussion-points/
The narrator finds the prison enchanting because by being isolated in his cell, with almost no human contact, the real world seems more like a dream, and their dreams of the inner workings of the entire institution come to life. Golden horses appear underground and the walls become almost lifelike in the mind of the narrator. This sort of imagination comes from the narrator's love of reading and how writers can create stories to be interpreted in multiple ways. The whole concept of death row is inhumane and sickening, but the narrator makes sense of the entire things by experiencing it as a vacation of the mind, a place where anything and everything can happen. All the lies and deceit of the prison are all morphed into a fantasy land where the narrator feels safe and in control. Their perspective on the matter shows an almost intriguing optimism about the stage of life they have fallen into. The narrator is very observant and thoughtful, making their moments alone in this horrible place that much more vivid and intuitive.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautifully written and perceptive response!
DeleteThe narrator refers to the prison as an enchanted place because, the narrator is in isolation. The outside world and human contact seem like fiction. The narrator reads throughout the time they have spent in the cell, and the narrator uses their imagination and what they have learned by reading, to picture the process of death row as a marvelous experience. The narrator creates a dream world for their self, and that reflects optimism.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator calls the prison enchanted because since they are cut off from a lot of human contact, they find everything in their surrounding more interesting and beautiful because that's all they can pay attention to. Which is why the narrator sees beauty in things that most people don't.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator calls the place enchanted because he believes it to be so, he has an appreciation for details, especially when it seems he has so little time. He’s appreciative, and enjoys the small details of the “cinder block… hallway and doorway” (Denfeld 1). He finds the beauty in the rust, the age of the objects, and appreciates them with vivid imagination, comparing these plain objects to “urns of the dead… their ashes across the floor until the floods come…. which wave to the sky” (Denfeld 1). Through his explanations and imagery, the reader can tell that the narrator is someone with very beautiful imagination and strength in his words.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator being on death row gives the audience a completely different perspective on a prison. Due to the circumstance, the narrator has learned to see the beauty in everything, no matter how small or where he is. Furthermore, the narrator is isolated from the outside world, meaning his definition of beauty is different than one who is not imprisoned. All this and more tells the audience that the narrator is making most of the time he has left alive and on earth.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator calls the prison enchanted for a few reasons. Because of their isolation within the dungeons, the narrator's mind conjures up a fantasy world in which they can experience things that would occur if they were not in prison. This is a result of the narrator's love of reading and his extensive imagination that they have cultivated within the prison, in order to maintain some level of sanity or solace while on death row. This shows that the narrator is imaginative and oddly optimistic.
ReplyDeleteDespite how it’s eerily describe, the narrator describes this place as enchanted because it is just so for them. The narrator sees the beauty in the darker aspects of the enchanted place that others would not, such as the hallways, “secret stairways”, the doors, the chamber with “cloudy medical vines”, and the secret basement where ashes are spilled. The narrator also sees beauty in the illusions they have such as the golden horses. This tells us the narrator, who is currently on death row, has a bleak outlook on the imminent future; if they have to find beauty in things that are considerably dark it shows they have have run out of actual beautiful things to find beauty in.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator finds the prison "enchanting" because of his vivid imagination. He finds mundane, every day things interesting because he is locked away from the rest of the world, so this is what he has to entertain himself. His isolation allows him to pay attention to what most people would just pass by and ignore. In addition, letting his imagination go and create such intuitive imaginations allows him to have a little bit of control over his life, even while he is locked away in prison and waiting on the death row.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator calls the dungeon enchanted because the stones and vines are seemingly alive. Also the dungeon can destroy you because it tears at your mind and body until you are a figment of yourself. The narrator finds beauty in the way the stones soak things up and how the vines seem to be alive. He also finds the beauty in books while the other inmates do not. That the narrator can find the happiness in any situation.
ReplyDeleteLiana Caez
ReplyDeleteAlexis Jackson
1. With the novel portraying the prison as an ‘’enchanted’’ place it gives a mere characterization of the prisoner named York, who finds his happy place inside of the library and shows his passion for reading novels, despite his monster demeanor throughout the dark place. The man loves reading and he finds his escape based upon what he reads.
1. The narrator calls the prison enchanted because he’s in a sense gone crazy from being there for so long. The hall outside his cell is the closest thing he has to outside and the women he sees outside every day, along with the guard, are the closest things he has to human contact. He also says this because of his vivid imagination. But in a sense I do believe he is a little bit crazy from being in prison for so long.
ReplyDeleteSara, Alexander, Carina, and Kyra
ReplyDelete2. The characters lives are all intertwined through their shared losses. Each of them are estranged from what they desire. For example, York and the lady have dealt with abuse and neglect during their childhoods resulting from an emotionally absent mother figure. This also ties into the stories of the narrator and the priest, both taken away from what they know and want due to their own incapabilities. The narrator is able to see that both the priest and the lady suffer from internal grief because of his omniscient perspective. He notices their subconscious signs demonstrating longing for one another in small things such as extending the length of a walk down the hallway together.
3. York wants to die in order to be free from the horrors of prison life, and the lady wants to save him solely because it is her job. York is not worth saving from death row because regardless of if he is saved or not he will still want to die. In the eyes of the law, execution is punishment, but in York’s mind it was freedom. The lady gathers evidence from York’s past, from his aunt and father figure in order to fill the gaps in his life and identify aspects of it that would allow him to be free from death row.
4. Initially, York was seen as nothing more than a criminal, a man who had committed atrocities against innocent people. Without context from his past, that is the sole way that he can be perceived, as a result of his crimes. As the reader learned more about York’s past, it is shown that he was a victim as a child, of abuse and syphilis passed down from his mother. As her investigation continues, the lady becomes more empathetic towards him due to the similarities between their lives. She develops a greater sense of herself and her own past, and allows herself to feel the pain that she had been pushing away for so long.